It’s adios, London, adios Toronto and hello Kingston, as an impressive Ontario craft brewer morphs from the world of renting tanks as a contract brewer into a full-fledged, bricks and mortar player.

Spearhead Brewing Company has been based in Toronto since 2011, establishing its reputation with beers such as Hawaiian Style Pale Ale, Sam Roberts Session Ale, and Moroccan Brown.

In a few months, Spearhead will be getting cozy at its new 16.000-square-foot facility in Kingston, a city that already boasts Stone City Ales which, if you have kids at Queen’s University, you already know all about.

The loss to London involves Toboggan Brewing Company and talented father-and-son brewers Tomas and Jacob Schmidt.

It looks like Tomas, the retired big beer brewer lured out of his easy chair to work in the craft world, will continue doing double duty with both Toboggan and Spearhead, where he’s vice president “and chief bottle washer.”

But Jacob, who honed his talents with his dad in the below-the-floor Richmond Row brewhouse, making Mr. Insurance Man Blonde, Lunatic Fridge IPA and my personal favourite vanilla stout, is off to Kingston as Spearhead’s head brewer.

“Tom Schmidt is still our brewmaster and will be until he chooses to retire someday, “ said Josh Hayter, Spearhead’s president and CEO. “His relationship with Toboggan is on a consulting basis and I believe it will continue.”

Josh describes Tom as the “master architect” of Spearhead beers.

Beer lovers descending on downtown London for the excellent Forest City Beer Fest Friday and Saturday at Covent Garden Market and Jubilee Square will be able to test the full range of Tom’s tasty work. Both Spearhead and Toboggan will be part of the festival.

“(We’ll be bringing) Hawaiian, Moroccan and Sam Roberts Session Ale,” Josh said in an email. “I believe Tom will likely try to have something special up his sleeve as well.”

Whether you raise a glass to Tom’s Toboggan brews or his Spearhead delights, it’s important to know his back story. Born in what is now the Czech Republic where he worked in brewing, he came to Canada in 1968 after the Prague Spring and worked for Labatt before retiring and then un-retiring to put his stamp on Spearhead and Toboggan.

Honour the man, honour his beer.

. . .

Forest City Beer Fest, now in its sixth year, has become a two-day event.

A launch party is Friday from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. at the Fanshawe College Centre for Digital and Performance Arts.

The main fest is Saturday from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. at Covent Garden Market and across the street at Jubilee Square. There will be 20 breweries and admission is free. Among the 20 to check out is Lake of Bays, which is bringing its summer-long launch tour of new core brands to the festival.

They’ll also be at Beertown on Friday night for a pre-party. You’ll want to take Oxtongue IPA for a whirl if you like a beer with bite.

. . .

Project Brew 150 is a showcase of Canada’s next generation of brewmasters.

Presented by Niagara College and held at the lovely Market Square in downtown St. Catharines Friday from 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., the young talents will have 17 beer styles with Canadian twists developed by the NC Teaching Brewery.

The theme is a homage to Canada’s 150th birthday and the 50th anniversary of Expo 67 in Montreal.

Masden, by the way, worked in the nuclear industry before enrolling in the brewmaster program.

In addition to student brews, the Soos family of Elgin County will be pouring son Matt’s signature beer.

Matt, a Niagara grad from 2014, worked at Railway City in St. Thomas and Muskoka in Gravenhurst.

Proceeds from Project Brew benefit the Matt Soos Memorial Fund established by the two craft brewers and awarded annually to the student who brews the best beer in the Niagara College Annual Brewmaster Competition.